Robber said:
And we don't have use fuzzy numbers to make it happen.
LOL at Robber. Surely, you know that those "fuzzy" numbers were submitted, I assume, by someone in your athletic department or university administration. By the way, how do you know that the $160,00 figure is not a fuzzy number?
Tigerpride said:
We need to have a good season though to maximize our profits because if we are not winning...we may not get a large HC crowd and we need that to take us over the top this year..
LOL at TP. When I said that JSU needed to win right out of the gate to retain its fan base, you seem to dispute that. Didn't you just implied the same thing?
But that's enough about JSU's finances. Just a few words about college football expenses in general.
I have not engaged in the debates on this board about BCF teams attempting to play at the D-1A level. I have felt that they were not financially able to compete at that level due to a lack of avenues with which to generate the huge amounts of money necessary to field competitive teams. I don't see any value in fielding teams that get beat by large margins in most games just for the perceived privilege of playing at college football highest level.
To be successful, a venture must find a nitch in which it can compete with like-minded organizations or competitors. It is also essential that organizations carefully weigh any decision to move from that profitable nitch because other competitors in other nitches may have ways of making their economic activity profitable that may not be available to a new competitior in that nitch. For example, AutoZone does well because it competes in a nitch with Auto Shack and other inexpensive auto repair parts shops. It would be foolish for it to suddenly expand into a general merchandise store, put up a giant building, and try to compete with Walmart. Walmart has too many ways to increase and maximize profits, and AutoZone couldn't match Walmart's revenue stream.
The level of success that organizations can achieve depends upon the level of profits or funds that are generated through economic activity in that nitch. Nitches that allow high level of sales and high profit margins are, obviously, more profitable than nitches that permit modest level of sales and very low profit margins. Organizations like Microsoft and Oracle had high level of sales because Microsoft software was being placed in most personal computers that were sold, and Oracle had its large customer base. Their products also brought high levels of profits because of their customer base.
All of this can be analogized to BCF and white college football. White college football teams have a nitch that will allow them to generate high level of funds from football activity. BCF teams have a more limited nitch from which to draw funds, and it will not approach the nitch for white teams any time soon. It is better for BCF teams to expand its nitch and make it more profitable, than trying to expand into another nitch where its competitiors have all of the advantages and will make all of the money.
The advantage for white college football teams are obvious. First, there are far more white population (180 million) than black population ( 30 million). Most whites will identify with a major white college team. That means, they are more likely to watch a major white team on television or attend a major white college football game. It doesn't need to said that the major white football team will likely make far more at the gate than a BCF team (Michigan will draw over 100,000 per game). It will also make more from televised games, because television tends to show teams that draw higher ratings, which allows them to charge a higher advertising rate. A Southern Miss-Tulane game will draw a higher rating than JSU-Southern, not because it is a better game, but because far more white viewers will be more interested in that game. It is simply a question of numbers.
Another distinct advantage for white schools is financial support. That support is not limited to alumni and fans, but also often includes the business community. There is a lot of money in the white community and much of it is donated to athletic or educational institutions. Did you ever think how white college teams can claim a sellout, but when you see the game there are many empty seats in the stadium? I remember when Johnny Williams at Troy needed to sell a certain number of tickets to get to D-1A. He said that they went to all of the businesses in Montgomery, Troy, Enterprise, Dothan Andalusia, Greenville, etc and got them to buy the tickets. Those business people never attended the games, and apparently couldn't give away the tickets, but Troy had sold the tickets and pocketed the money. The business people wrote off the tickets as donations or business expenses. Those businesses would not have done the same for Alabama State.
It will be a long time before BCF teams can find the operating funds to compete in someones else's nitch. Most BCF fans, even the ones who care about the sport, don't have the level of wealth or level of committment to give a huge amout to the athletic department, or to give small amounts consistently. BCF teams, however, do have their own nitches, which are classic games and gate attendance. Instead of trying to get away from BCF, we should try to make the classics more profitable for us. To do this, we have to take control of the games and maximize the income from the various revenue streams generated by the games. I believe that BCF teams can eventually generate more funds by carefully grooming the revenue streams within it nitch than it can receive by mindlessly going to D-1A and playing for "guarantee" games that are designed for the team to lose. In addition, if any BCFteam ever gets good enough to win against those teams, the teams will stop giving the guarantee games, and the BCF team would have lost one of the reasons for being D-1A.
